The Public Chamber Fights Intolerance
// With 49 measures
The Public Chamber has addressed the problem of national intolerance in Russia and come up with a list of measures to take against it. Officials, police and teachers should be certified for knowledge of the problems of interethnic relations. Parties should introduce tolerance in their programs, the Ministry of Education and Science should remove “ethnocentric versions of history” from textbooks and public organizations should create neighborhood “peace committees.” This comes from its 49 “Recommendations for Counteracting Intolerance and Extremism in Russian Society,” which was discussed today at a full meeting of the Chamber and which Kommersant has obtained a copy of.
The “Recommendations” claim that open discrimination against ethnic and religious groups practiced, but a growth of extremism is taking place. They say that the main danger of nationalism is that it presents itself as patriotism. Youth organizations are identified as the main proponents of nationalism that have been responsible for “hundreds of beating and tens of deaths.” Radical organization, the authors say, are ready to begin a political terror. The media and law enforcement system are blamed for the growth of extremism because of the press's lack of “a code of ethics” and law enforcement's weak response to extremism, creating the impression of impunity.
The Chamber's suggestions have met with predictable cynicism. “A policeman who does not stop an attack on the street should be expelled from the force in dishonor,” advisor to the Council of Muftis of Russia Ali Vyacheslav Polosin told Kommersant. “They will giggle at brochures [suggested by the Public Chamber to increase their cross-cultural sensitivity] and everything will remain the same.” Head of the St. Petersburg student organization African Unity Desire Defoe told the newspaper that the Chamber's measures “will not stop the wave of aggression against people with different color of skin in Russia. There are few police on the street here, people are apathetic and there is simply no one to protect you.” African Unity member from Senegal Sall Samba Lanpsar was killed in St. Petersburg on April 7.
Andrey Kozenko, Oksana Alexeeva, Yulia Taratuta
All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 14, 2006
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Photo: Dmitry Dukhanin
